Music in pornography

Music in pornography is the non-diegetic soundtrack behind pornographic films.

Like in other visual media, music in pornography is considered high-quality when it is unnoticed by the viewer, but is nonetheless considered an integral part of the experience, enhancing the mood.

Music was absent but implied in early productions. Sampled music followed and defined the topic with early funk sensibilities before full, live orchestrations were commissioned during the Golden Age of Porn. When the number of porn videos exploded in the 1970s and 1980s, publishing rates exceeded the capacity for soundtracking, and background music was often cribbed or stolen from other sources. With easy digital distribution in the 1990s and onward, amateur pornography returned the industry to a non-musical standard of production.

History

The silent era

Even in the silent era, erotic films such as Le Coucher de la Mariée and Fatima Djamile's Coochie Coochie Dance could be argued to have implied music with the stripteases and dancing of the performers — both activities that would have been accompanied by music in real life. Once sound films were being made, the Motion Picture Production Code (MPPC) in the United States kept professional equipment away from pornographers; this left such films short and silent until the 1960s, relegating them to amateur circles.

1960s

With the sexual revolution in 1960s United States, the death of the MPPC, and the development of adult movie theaters, the audience demand for audio in pornography could be satisfied by producers with 35 mm movie film. Initially, these early soundtracks were hastily made by filmmakers and theater owners sampling other sources.